Women’s downhill World Cup season opener in Zermatt-Cervinia cancelled due to ‘extremely strong’ winds

The first women’s downhill World Cup event in Zermatt-Cervinia has been cancelled due to strong winds and an unfavourable forecast.

Initially postponed, the event was eventually called off because of adverse weather conditions, denying Mikaela Shiffrin the chance to build on her slalom victory last week.

The ski season has been badly affected by the weather so far, with the first three men’s races of the season also cancelled.

“The wind is extremely strong, it was extremely strong during the whole [of] last night,” race director Peter Gerdol told Eurosport.

“We’re hoping for a decrease of the wind in the morning, actually it has decreased a little bit but still, in this condition, we can not think about having a ski race.”

Riders will hope to return to the slopes on Sunday with a second day of skiing action scheduled, but it remains to be seen whether the event will go ahead or not.

“In the last days we have been in touch with the meteorological services who will again contact and check this afternoon,” Gerdol said ahead of Sunday’s race. “We will prepare everything for tomorrow, and then we will see if the situation is better or not.

“The forecast isn’t promising, but we will again.”

On whether there could be an option to race on Monday, Gerdol added: “Monday is not an option. This was discussed in the last months, but we already decided it was not an option.”

She topped the charts in the giant slalom with a total time of 2:18.94, while record-chasing Shiffrin finished sixth.